The company must develop on the basis of its business environment. Our environment is servicing garages, and they constantly need investment and know-how in order to develop. If we do not provide those, we shall have no-one to sell spare parts to. - said Robert Kierzek, the President of Inter Cars.
What were the milestone decisions in the history of the company, allowing it to develop so much?
The biggest milestones in the history of Inter Cars were the decision on building a distribution chain based on ownership of branches and international expansion. But this does not show the source of passion in Inter Cars, not only to sell parts, but also to develop other concepts and projects. I suppose that the clue is that no company can develop alone and itself. It must develop on the basis of its business environment it operates in. Our environment is servicing garages, and they constantly need investment and know-how in order to develop. If we do not provide those, we shall have no-one to sell spare parts to.
You have created your own brands of devices. What will be more important - developing private brands or working with other manufacturers?
The strategy of Inter Cars is working with the so called premium suppliers, i.e. such which deliver their products also to car makers. Currently only around 20% of parts used in a car come directly from car makers, and the rest comes from specialized third parties manufacturing parts and sub-assemblies, such as Bosch or Valeo. Because of this we want to provide our customers not only spare parts, but also competence in repairs and technical know-how. Such knowledge can be delivered to us only by manufacturers who deliver parts to car makers. They can also provide us with spare parts with quality equal to those delivered for the first assembly.
So you are turning from a spare parts supplier to a supplier of solutions?
We want to deliver all the solutions which are needed for the mechanical garage to operate and repair cars.
What next?
We want to strengthen our position in Central and Eastern Europe. Continue our organic growth in the countries where we are present and also develop in those countries of the region where we have not established our operations yet, e.g. in some Balkan Countries.
We are strong in spare parts, mechanical and running materials. But we have a lot to do in such segments as tyres, batteries, body parts and spare parts for heavy goods vehicles. In those areas there is still potential for growth.
The company must develop on the basis of its business environment. Our environment is servicing garages, and they constantly need investment and know-how in order to develop. If we do not provide those, we shall have no-one to sell spare parts to. - said Robert Kierzek, the President of Inter Cars.
Soon the independent garages will be flooded with a group of vehicles equipped with advanced electronics - radars, cameras, sensors. Are the garages ready for them?
The dealer gets repair technologies from manufacturers of hose parts, who have competence and knowledge to repair such elements. That is why the knowledge transfer to garages is so important. Lack of knowledge and trainings makes it impossible to repair modern cars. Also special equipment is a must. The list of necessary devices grows year by year.
Will it not happen that soon on the market there will only be the biggest and the strongest garages, able to bear high cost of development?
It is hard to say. In Germany, where there are much more citizens there are around 40m cars and 20k garages. In Poland, where there are fewer citizens and less cars we have the same number of garages. I suppose that it is a natural direction - not all the garages shall survive. A garage needs to invest in modern solutions, trainings. Distributors, not only we, are trying to help in this, but also openness of the owner is important. Not everyone wants to follow this trend.
You are talking about organic growth. Are you not interested in takeovers at all?
We cannot exclude that completely. There can always be some favourable market situations. Our strategy assumes that most of all we want to grow by our business partners, branch owners, not only in Poland, but also in 14 other countries where we are present on the market. Those people in the regions increase their scope of activities and open new branches.
We are thinking about two other markets - Moldova and Estonia. We already have our subsidiaries there and soon we will start developing our distribution chain.
We also started creating a distribution chain in Italy, and that is a huge market. There is a lot to do.
Source: energetyka. wnp. pl
2015-10-14